Menu structure
- Match menu structure to task structure
- Provide users with an easy way to tailor menu structure to task structure.
- Minimize menu hierarchy depth at the expense of breadth.
- On full-screen text menus, present menu choices vertically.
- Consider pie menus for one- or two-level mouse-driven menu hierarchies with short menu choice lists, especially when the choices lend themselves well to a circular, pie format.
- Choosing graying out (or even deletion) of inactive menu items: depends on user experience and input device. {but try to maintain consistency}
- Create logical, distinctive, and mutually exclusive semantic categories with clear meaning.
- Menu choice labels should be brief, consistent in grammatical style and placement, and matched with corresponding menu titles.
- Consider menu choice descriptors if choice labels may not be clear and unambiguous. (Look-ahead, Microhelp, Tool-tips)
Menu choice ordering
- Order choice labels according to:
depending on the user and task variables.
- convention;
- frequency of use;
- order of use;
- categorical or function groups; and/or
- alphabetical order;
Menu choice selection
- On keyboard-driven menu systems:
- Cursor selection is acceptable for shorter menus, especially if use is expected to be casual.
- For longer menus and/or for high-frequency users, mnemonically lettered section codes are preferred if practical.
- On pointer-driven (e.g., mouse) interfaces, providing a pointer cursor selection mechanism is recommended.
- Provide menu selection defaults when possible.
- Distinguish between "Choose one" and "Choose many" menus.
- Provide menu selection feedback.
Menu invocation
- Reserve pop-up or user-invoked menus for high-frequency users and situations where screen real-estate is scarce. Permanent menus are preferred.
Menu navigation
- Establish conventions for menu design and apply them consistently on all menu screens within a system.
- Consider the use of context labels, menu maps, and place markers as navigation aids in complex menu systems.
- Consider the use of direct access through type-ahead, menu screen names, and user-created macros to facilitate navigation for expert users.
- Facilitate backward navigation.
dcb at cs wpi edu / Fri Apr 7 10:53:36 2017